Abstract: One new festival emerged out of the Eastern Capital, now known as Kaifeng City (also known as Bianjing City) during the North Song Dynasty: Little New Year, which is a festival on the December 24th of the lunar month. Little New Year is the prelude of Chinese New Year, where there are four brief customs including Kitchen God worshiping, chanting, driving out evil spirits, and house cleaning. After the Northern Song Dynasty, this festival had spread towards the Hangzhou area, having other names such as Little New Year Eve or Minor New Year passed on from generation to generation up until now. Although the customs had already been popular in the Tang Dynasty during New Year Eve as a festival, people still trace the origin of Little New Year back to Kaifeng City during the Song Dynasty due to the festival’s large scale effect on Kaifeng City and because of a famous book called The Eastern Capital: A Dream of Splendor, bringing popularity and reputation to the festival. The Little New Year Festival is a product of the Bianjing City civilization, enriching traditional festival culture and improving peoples spiritual life, strengthening the concept of environmental sanitation, and adding new elements to Chinese civilization.

Key words: Little New Year, Song Dynasty, Bianjing City